A Monk's tale

Confused and dazed

Soon, Shun realized he was not alone. In a cell next to his, another one was also trying to break free – Senji, a fellow ebonite monk. Once Senji realized he had company, his improved motivation and muscled physique proved of use in breaking the chains which were binding him to the wall. Lacking the sheer strength to tear his chains apart, Shun took the oportunity to exploit a weakness on his shackles to break free.

The room next to the cell was mostly dominated by a central wooden table with built-in shackes designed to hold a humanoid on his wrists, ankles and neck. On it, the body of a half-orc lied lifeless, his skin displaying many bruises and cuts. A tattoo, correctly identified as the holy symbol of Serra, was masterfully tattoed on his chest. On his side, some surgical tools and flasks of smoked glass were also scattered on the table, covered on his blood.

Although the dead half-orc’s face seemed somehow familiar, neither Shun or Senji seemed to remember his name. In fact, neither of them could recall how or why they had reached this place. All Shun could remember was an important conversation with Master Zenshi, although he couldn’t quite remember it’s purpose. Senji, too, could not remember anything of what happened in the last days as well.

However, they did know they could not wait much longer. A quick inspection revealed the presence of a fourth person imprisioned, an elven maiden named Ophelia. While Shun and Senji seemed to have lost the memory of the past few days, somehow Ophelia had managed to keep it. She was shocked to know the half orc, who she named Kludd, was dead.

According to Ophelia, her, Shun, Senki and Kludd had been adventuring for the last four days. Shun and Senji were following a clue regarding the mystery behind the construction of the “metallic men”, complex automatons which serve as servants for thw wealthy in Castlespire and that may be connected to Shun’s dreams. That clue refered a hideoud near Kools as a possible location to the factory where the “metallic men” were being manufactured.

Master Zenshi arranged a meeting between Shun and Senji with Ophelia, an elven scout well accuustomed to the Keldonian geography and Kludd, a cleric of Serra with orcish ascendance. Their companions displayed great bravery and battle prowess during a short battle between keldonian guards and the adventuring group shortly after the party crossed the border between Tivadar and Keld, but whule approaching their final destination they were captured and imprisioned.

Right now, the group had little time to reorganize. Ophelia was able to find some equipment just in time as a group of men, their faces covered by cloth mask, their muscular bodies dressed in blood-stained aprons – men they somehow knew to be known as dark servants. Upon realizing their prisioners had escapped, the dark servants attacked them with their rugged cleavers without hesitation, but luckily the adventurers prevailed.

After the short (but intense) fight, the group considered to escape the facility as soon as possible. However, a child’s shriek echoed from behind the heavy door, followed by a cold silence. It was not going to be easy.

“…Where am I?”, Shun muttered between dry lips as he regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes. He gazed at his surroundings in search of a clue about his surroundings but he did not recognize where he was.

This brief lapse in time was suddenly interrupted by a sharp pain crossing his wrists and running all the way to his shoulders. Shun soon rememebered he had been shackled to the wall – his arms now were being held up high, aching from the strain his dormant body had put on them. The ebonite monk remembered to have put all of his strengths together to break the steel chain which was binding him to the wall but with no success. “I must have passed away from the effort…”, the thought.

As the ebonite tried to put himself on a standing position, he looked around in an effort to see what was around him. Shun was being held prisioner in what appeared to be a small cell, no bigger than a broom closet of his monastery. Other two shackles hung loose from the mason walls around him, and although they did not held any prisoners at the present moment, the dark, bloody stains on them suggested a darker use in the past. On the wall opposite to where Shun was there was a heavy-looking wooden door with bronze bindings. A slit in the middle of it allowed some light inside the small division.

Shun was unharmed but he could not put together any clear memory of the past days. He vaguely remembered speaking to Zenshi sensei and leaving the monastery, but he could not remember which purpose he had in mind, neither could he tell how long he had left the monastery and how he ended up in this scenario. But he could remember men – creepy men with bloodstained aprons restraining him to his shackles, the cold, piercing eyes of a woman staring at him through the door slit and endless screams of agony coming from beyond the door…